


always meet your heroes

by navaan



Series: Always DATE Your Heroes [1]
Category: Iron Man: Armored Adventures
Genre: Dating, First Dates, Flirting, Hero Worship, Identity Porn, M/M, Mutual Pining, Romance, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-12 18:18:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9083989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: Iron Man is a beloved hero, but even he is amazed when Captain America appears back on the scene





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wolviecat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolviecat/gifts).



He took his father’s call on his way back to Stark Solutions. “You’re flying, aren’t you?” his father asked amused.

“I’m just faster this way.”

The warm chuckle brought a smile to his own face. He’d thought once that he’d lost his father forever and although their lives had changed dramatically since that terrible accident that had made him Iron Man and something seemed to be going on all the time, Tony always took the time to cherish the fact that he wasn’t the only Stark left in the world. “Sometimes it’s alright to slow down, son,” his father reminded him.

“You’re telling me this now? After years of letting me look into how to make things faster?”

His father laughed again. “Actually,” he said, “I had hoped you could join me at the SHIELD meeting today. Stark Industries has taken the new SHIELD contract and it can’t hurt to have you there.”

“As Tony or Iron Man?” His standing with SHIELD had changed somewhat over the last year or so, but as much respect as he held for Director Fury on a good day, Tony had developed a keen distrust for people who were trying to take control. He had learned a bit about people who were convincing the world they were just looking out for his best interest when his father had been presumed dead. It had nearly cost him the company and so much more.

“Well, both. Let’s say I’d like to hire the help of Solutions for this contract.” his father said and chuckled. He had taken control over his company back and had let Tony go ahead with his plans to build up his own under the name “Stark Solutions”, insisting he remain at college despite of it. (Tony hadn’t put up a fight. Being a celebrity student had more drawbacks than he thought it would have, but working with people like Reed Richards was just so damn exciting.) “You’ve overseen some of the changes that were made to the Helicarrier. I need your technical expertise.”

He laughed. His father was always trying to smooth over things between him and Fury, not least because he wanted “Iron Man” to have the safety of not being alone in the field. After Gene, Tony couldn’t blame him. But he had War Machine and Rescue and he was always on good terms with Black Widow and Hawkeye - whatever his momentary status with the rest of SHIELD - and Banner was keeping an eye on him at all times, not least because he thought he owed it to Howard, and recently he’d fought with Thor against a new AIM faction, and it seemed Ant-Man and Wasp would be allies he could count on in the future, too.

“The last time you said it, you actually wanted me to meet the daughter of a business partner, dad.”

“Are you blaming me for thinking my 19 year old son should have a social life that goes beyond punching things alongside the Hulk.”

“Those were not things, but Doom created horror bots.”

“Well, facing off with Victor Von Doom every other month is not what I would call a social life,” his father admonished. 

Tony could not blame him for being worried. But after things with Gene Kahn and seeing how his thing with Whitney had turned out, Tony had become very careful about who he wanted to be a part of his life and it was just easier to have other heroes to punch things with than to actually look at someone and imagine they could be someone to trust outside the battlefield. That special place was still mostly reserved for Rhodey and Pepper.

He didn’t ask for landing permission, before coming down heavily on his feet on top of the helicarrier. Pilots were looking his way and he saluted in their direction, purposefully walking forward like he belong here. Most days he actually did. But the appearance of Iron Man always made people take note. 

Spotting Natasha close to the entrance talking to someone was somewhat of a relief. 

“Widow,” he said and saluted her too.

She threw him a crooked smile. “Stark,” she said. “Your father and the director are waiting for you.”

“I heard.”

He spared a short glance for her broad shouldered and attractive looking companion, who was not dressed in the usual black SHIELD garb, but plain jeans, a dark blue Henley and a brown leather jacket, and who was looking at him with wide eyes, but a calm gaze. He probably had never seen the armor outside of new coverage and was surprised to suddenly see it up close. Tony got that look a lot these days. 

He smiled at the guy, then waved at Natasha, before walking past them to track down his father.

“He seems pretty young for the hero who saved the world.”

“He had to grow up fast. And he had a pretty impressive role model, I hear.”

Although Extremis made it impossible for him to not hear the words loud and clear through his helmet, he did not turn around to look at Natasha and the good-looking man again.

* * *

He went into battle without a second thought. Getting into these kinds of scrapes on a regular basis had become second nature to him. Hydra staging an open attack on a SHIELD base of operations was a new kind of threat, but after you’d fought off an alien invasion or two it only seemed like a variation on a theme.

“So?” he asked into the comms, knowing that SHIELD and the other heroes on the scene would be able to pick up his signal. “HYDRA? Blast from the past?”

He expected Fury or Black Widow to answer him, but instead a new voice said: “No time for joking, Iron Man. This threat is real.”

One of the Hydra tanks exploded to his right, just as Tony had taken out the SHIELD that protected the main Hydra carrier. 

“Thank you,” Natasha whispered across the line. “I needed a way in.”

Tony did not have time to acknowledge. With Iron Man on the scene, some of the big guns were suddenly finding a new focus on the battlefield. The tactics reminded him of AIM, although there was less emphasis on the technical expertise and everything was geared towards fire power. He stepped right through the fire, shoving a missile back into the waters of the close-by harbor with his armored hands. 

Another explosion pushed him a few feet back and he swung himself into the air to get out of the blast radius and get a better view of the area. He scanned for the ally who was making a short work of Hydra equipment down there, but before he had actually caught a glimpse of him another missile nearly took him out, appearing faster than his scanners could blare warnings at him. 

A round, spheric metal object appeared at incredible speed spinning right into the missile and veered the explosive to the side. Tony, who had braced for impact, watched in fascination as the object bounced off and flew back, caught by a strong hand.

His mouth was suddenly dry.

He had seen this before.

“Good job, Iron Man. Can you get me up there?” 

Tony blinked. 

And blinked again.

He knew the uniform.

Had seen the blue, red and white in a museum.

Knew the shield from pictures.

“Cap… tain America?” he asked slowly, not believing his own eyes.

The man smiled. “That’s me. We are needed up there.” He pointed upwards towards the carrier.

There was no time to question what he was seeing. He jumped back into action, grabbed the man's hand and pulled him against the armor, lifting both of them into the air at high speed.

They fought Hydra henchmen back to back, Tony feeling useless in the confined space. But the man who was dressed up like his childhood hero moved through the ranks without missing a step, wielding the shield like it was an extension of himself. 

Tony had seen the fighting style before.

But it couldn’t be, could it?

When Hydra finally pulled back all forces, he ended up standing beside the Captain, Natasha only a few feet away from them. “Good work, everyone,” the man said and clapped Tony on the shoulder. 

The smile beneath the blue mask and the relaxed twinkle in the man’s eyes was suddenly edged into Tony’s mind.

* * *

“He can’t be real,” he told his father, when he went to see him for dinner that evening.

“Why not?” His father grinned. He had fostered Tony’s enthusiasm for all things related to America’s first superhero and only supersoldier.

“How can he be?” 

“You’ve fought at the side of a thunder god from Asgard and faced down aliens.”

“Right,” Tony admitted. And he really wanted it to be true.

Captain America had clapped him on the shoulder. Captain America had smiled at him.

* * *

SHIELD did not answer his questions. Pepper was as disappointed about that as Tony. “You’d think they would tell us! After everything can you even imagine why they wouldn’t tell us?”

He shrugged. “Perhaps it’s up to him. He went through a war without compromising his identity. If it is him.”

“But he’s Captain America!”

“Yes, I know Pepper.”

“How can you doubt him?”

Tony laughed, breathless and a little embarrassed. He really wanted to believe that it was his real life hero in the flesh. It was like a dream come true.

* * *

Iron Man, Captain America and Thor made the front page not two weeks later for protecting New York’s population from another Asgardian. Apparently, Thor had a slightly crazed brother and dealing with magic again gave Tony unpleasant flashbacks to all the times he had dealings with Doom and the Mandarin. His experiences paid off though. Asgardian magic, much like the magic he had encountered before, was a form of very advanced technology.

Captain America - apparently the real deal come back to life - had his hand on Iron Man’s shoulder again. 

Tony was glad that his excited expression was hidden well under his full face mask.

* * *

“Is this seat taken?”

Tony blinked up at the tall agent and it took him just a second to recognize the handsome man he’d seen with Natasha a couple of times now. He was wearing the standard uniform this time and it showed off his muscled arms and torso. 

He looked around for a moment, not sure what he was supposed to do with the sudden attention of an attractive SHIELD agent, when he was actually sitting in the SHIELD cafeteria waiting for his _father_. 

“I don’t think seats are assigned around here. Yet.” 

A brilliant smile was thrown his way and the man slid into the chair opposite him. “I don’t really know that many people around here.”

It was a strange opener for a conversation with the person everyone around here knew was Iron Man, but Tony smiled back. He knew what it felt like being the odd one out. 

“I’m probably the wrong person to ask for introductions,” Tony joked. “I’m not SHIELD.”

“I know. Natasha said, I should try to talk to you when you weren’t busy.”

“She did?” For a while now Natasha had teamed up with his father in her attempts to find a nice SHIELD agent or otherwise nice girl to give him something beside Iron Man and work to think about. What exactly had she told the man?

Now that he had the time to focus on him, he realized that while he was probably a couple of years older than Tony, he was on the young side for an agent. 

“I’m not supposed to give away that she speaks highly of you.”

He chuckled. That sounded like the Black Widow he knew.

“I’m Steve, by the way.” He held our his hand. “Steve Rogers.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said and shook his hand. “Call me Tony.”

“Tony,” the man repeated. He did not have the awe stricken fan look, but something about his smile suddenly seemed familiar and friendly.

Tony liked it. Liked it very much so. Steve was still holding on to his hand. “You’re new around here?”

“You could say that.” 

“I promise to be a bad influence.”

Steve laughed and it came easy to him. “I doubt that very much. I hope we can be great friends.”

Not one to trust easily and usually insisting he had all the best friends a person would ever need, Tony said: “I’d like that.” 

_Must be the smile_ , he thought. _I really like the smile._ There was no other explanation for the way he couldn’t pull his eyes away.

“So tell me, Tony,” Steve started, finally pulling his hand away. “What brings you here today? I’m not… keeping you from something, am I?”

It was another strange opener for conversation, but he didn’t mind. Between the giddy feeling of having talked to Captain America for more than 5 minutes _outside_ of battle yesterday and his own discomfort of waiting here for his father without company, drawing the gazes of so many curious agents, he really was glad for the company.

“No, no,” Tony answered a little too quickly. “I don’t mind at all.”

There was the smile again.

Handsome.

And so familiar.

He still couldn’t place it.

But he knew he wanted to see more of it.

“Don’t mind at all.”

He was making new friends, right?

Friends were important.

“I’m glad,” Steve said and sunk into the chair, some tension leaving his shoulders. 

He _was_ flirting, Tony suddenly realized. But it was the fact that Tony felt like flirting back, that surprised him more.

He was too busy staring at Steve to realize that Natasha was standing in the cafeteria’s entrance, grinning, and he’d forgotten all about the annoyance of waiting for his father who was stuck in a meeting and running late.

* * *

Captain America helped him to his feet. He’d been partially buried under what had been left of the building. “That was brilliant, but dangerous,” the man said in his low command voice.

“Just like me,” Tony quipped. 

“I’m beginning to learn all about it,” Cap said and smiled. “I’m glad to know you have my back…”

Tony smiled at the praise, although he knew Cap couldn’t see it. 

“See you at debriefing?” Cap asked, carefully. He knew Tony only joined those because he wanted to keep a good working relationship with SHIELD.

“I…” He did not want to disappoint Captain America, but he had plans. “Actually, can I have a rain check on that? I have a date?”

“A date?” Cap asked and his voice sounded breathless, very low. Then he shook his head as if he wanted to clear it and with a smile added: “If it’s important to you, I won’t keep you.”

“You’re just the best, Cap. I’m sure you know.”

* * *

His heart fluttered when he saw Steve, dressed in strangely old-fashioned looking civilian clothing. It was the first time they’d decided to meet up outside of the “workplace”.

“Hi,” Steve said and his eyes were shining.

 _He looks a bit like Captain America_ , when he was smiling. Tony blushed, even thinking it and admonished himself for even having a thought like that.

“Hi,” Tony echoed. “Let’s go?” He held out his hand.

Steve looked adorably uncertain suddenly, then nodded, took the offered hand and held on. “After the movie, I have something to tell you.”

“That sounds grave.”

“I talked to your father today… and… Well, Fury was there, too. So I have special permission.”

That didn’t make much sense. Although, he knew his father could be scary when he was worried about Tony. It was just hard to think of Fury as someone who would take an interest in these things… Some of the confusion must have been visible on Tony’s face.

Still smiling, Steve shook his head. “Movie first. I always liked the movies.” He said it with such an undertone that made it sound like he hadn't been to a movie in years.

Tony was not going to deny him. He was still too excited and giddy to do much more than make sure he wouldn’t trip over his own feet.

And wouldn’t that be embarrassing.

He laughed nervously.

They were walking, hand in hand. Steve looked at him again, eyes still shining. Perhaps he needed to thank Natasha later. For making Steve talk to him.

And thank Cap, for letting him out of post-combat debriefings. He knew those were important.

 _Later_ , he thought. _Focus on this, now. You can be a Cap fanboy again tomorrow._

He pulled Steve along, for once just glad to be 19 and on a date.


End file.
